The office of the premier of Gauteng has incurred R590,000 in fruitless and wasteful expenditure and R455.6m in irregular expenditure despite maintaining a clean audit for the 2024/25 financial year. This was revealed by Tlou Chokoe, chairperson of the portfolio committee on social development, at the Gauteng legislature on Tuesday. He said the fruitless expenditure stems from an overpayment in June last year, while the irregular expenditure dates back three to four years, and that the process of recovering the money has been initiated.
“Summons have been issued to recover the overpaid amount, and the investigation by the state legal advising services is ongoing,” he said. Chokoe added that investigations had also been conducted to understand the causes of the irregular expenditure. “The office of the premier was able to investigate and utilise relevant clauses to clear this matter, and it has no material impact on the audit findings.
Further indication was made that the Gauteng provincial treasury has noted that all due processes as per the irregular expenditure framework were not followed, resulting in the irregular expenditure not being considered by the relevant authority in line with the National Treasury,” Chokoe said. On lifestyle audits to be conducted on senior management and supply chain management officials, Chokoe said the office acknowledged that the function required significant resources beyond the province’s capacity. “The office of the premier explained that without the Gauteng provincial government’s partnership with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), conducting lifestyle audits could not have been easy for the government and its departments in obtaining the relevant information.
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“It was further indicated that the turnaround time is still low, and even the SIU does not have the capacity to conduct this process. “An indication was made that the SIU is ready to give its first lifestyle audit report for senior managers and supply chain managers,” he said. Chokoe said annual financial disclosure as an intervention mechanism is a contributing factor towards the lifestyle audit. He said it was indicated to the committee that the State Security Agency does not have the capacity to assist with top-secret-level security clearance, “hence the delay in the vetting process and the importance of the government’s partnership with the SIU to assist with the lifestyle audit”.
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